Nesting before taking Flight
But unlike the birds, I’m taking my nest with me. And instead of the beak, I’m using a camera to pluck twigs, vines and other bits of undergrowth from my parish countryside to build up a collection of images that evoke home, a memory box of sorts to take with me when I move. I’m using an antiquated Vivitar XV-1 with a 50mm 1:2 prime lens. I found it hiding in an old biscuit box at a car boot sale last summer and satisfyingly struck a bargain at £5. Last year however, I was focused on building my own cameras, loading homemade pinholes with both 120mm and 35mm film, and the new…old Vivitar didn’t get taken out the biscuit box.
This week I have found that £5 was a little too good to be true. I’ve discovered the prime lens’s focus is unalterable, with the focal point sitting permanently about 2metres from the camera, and the body has a tendency to let in light; but in all honestly I kinda love it all the more. I love the magick that that unpredictability offers, and when I loaded the camera with some expired film, I was offered a range of colour shifts and light leaks as the image ebbed in and out of focus.
Yet despite these few quirks, this camera has offered me a more concrete way of image capture than any of my home made cameras, and without having to carry around a tripod and dark room bag, this, albeit slightly damaged, Vivitar might offer me the most practical way of creating images on film while on my residency.
But for now I will continue to fluff out my nest of photographic images, and perhaps weave in performance for good measure, pack my bags and prepare to say addio Inghilterra.
